Episodes occur just a year after the worst forest fires to hit the area in three decades
A large fire hit, this Saturday (10), the . The flames continued to occur this Sunday (11) and have already consumed more than 5,500 thousand hectares. Hundreds of firefighters and volunteer residents worked tirelessly to contain the uncontrolled flames that leave small communities in the region on high alert.
The fires come just a year after the worst wildfires to hit Patagonia in three decades, in a series of extreme events that put constant pressure on official and community firefighting systems.
“There is no way to describe what we are experiencing. There are fires everywhere; a new one is reported every five minutes. It’s hell,” said Flavia Broffoni, a resident of Epuyén, this Saturday on her Instagram account.
Broffoni is one of dozens of residents who have worked tirelessly to contain the flames since Monday, when the fire broke out in the resort of Puerto Patriada, about 1,700 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires.
Despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters, the fire devastated thousands of hectares of vegetation and surrounded the small town of Epuyén, a village with just over 2,000 inhabitants, located between a glacial lake and hills covered in native forests. The governor of the province, Ignacio Torres, declared on X that, due to the adverse weather conditions predicted for the weekend, the “next 48 hours will be vital” to contain the fire.
Around 3,000 tourists in Puerto Patriada and 15 families in the Epuyén region were evacuated, Torres specified. More than 10 houses were destroyed by fire. The official operation involves almost 500 people, including firefighters, rescue teams, security forces and support personnel. Over the weekend, reinforcement aircraft and more firefighters are expected from the province of Córdoba (central Argentina) and Chile.
*With information from AFP
